Lob-stah in Baa Haa Baa

So as you recall we left you last night planning our shopping today before our trip to Maine!  Good news everyone, Gordo finally found jeans long enough! Toot breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as its the first Levis store we have left without Gordos bottom lip dragging on the floor, and shoulders hunched!  You would think they have people with long-ish legs here too, apparently not! Oh, did we mention, further discounts on top of reduced prices and then no tax! Rad!

After our successful shopping trip we headed North to drive through Gorham and Bethel and then east towards Bar Harbor. We drove through many picturesque towns and villages on our way to the Lobster Mecca! This place is beautiful and we are located really well for walking, eating, shopping etc! We are staying in another quaint little hotel with a fire pit on the front porch and a pub next door with a complimentary arrival beer.

Once we settled we did some much needed washing and then headed to find some dinner.  We went for a short walk around before finding a place to eat.  We decided to try the special on the menu which was a taste of Maine.  It had a bowl of clam chowder, a lobster and some blueberry pie a la mode (with ice cream).  All products were local and very delicious.  Did I mention that we had all of this each and no sharing was allowed, rules of the menu and we had to abide, very good value and delicious.

After dinner a short walk was required  as well as some window shopping.  Then back to the hotel to have a cider and settle in for the evening.

Sorry no photos today as we spent all day on the road.  The camera was left in the room for the dinner venture so of course we will have to have a redo so we can prove it to you, that's a shame!

Much love

Toot and Gordo Xx.

PS Do you miss us yet?

Goodbye Vermont, hello New Hampshire (lots of photos for you all)

Again, sorry for the tardiness of the blog from yesterday, it is very tiring sightseeing!  So yesterday started off with a scrumptious breakfast cooked by George.  We had egg strata (all locally sourced produce), fresh fruit and home baked apple spiced muffins.  So tasty but also extremely filling. Of course after eating all of that we didn't need to eat lunch.


After breakfast we hit the road again and headed in search of covered bridges. We drove a short distance and found the first one, Goldbrook Bridge, also commonly known in the area as Emily's Bridge.  This is due to the fact that some of the locals believe that the bridge is haunted by an old farm girl who committed suicide off the bridge after being jilted at the alter by her fiance. We walked through the bridge, drove through the bridge and took many a photo of the bridge.....but discovered no such girl.

 Toot putting "gas" in the Chrysler - see below:

From here we headed south to Northfield to see another 3 covered bridges which spanned a beautiful river in a small town. After this we headed back north west to Burlington.  Burlington came across as a slightly hippyish college town.  It was Saturday morning and the farmers markets were on.  We wandered around here for a bit and then headed to the water front.  Burlington is located on the eastern edge of Lake Champerlain.  It was beautiful down by the water with a small boardwalk, swingchairs along the foreshore and a nice grassy area for people to chill out on.

After Burlington we headed back to Stowe via the Trapp family lodge (built by Maria von Trapp aka Julie Andrews).  We had a look around the outside and took some pictures of the beautiful view they have.  It is located quite high up one of the mountains just on the edge of Stowe up a somewhat narrow and windy road.  If we had a spare $700 a night we may have stayed there but it wouldn't have been anywhere 
near as personal as the Brass Lantern.  
The lodge is still owned by the family.

We stopped back in the town to take some more photos before heading back for a rest and some reading at the B&B.  After a lie down and a read, we decided to head out for some dinner.  This time it was the local Mexican joint, Fridas.  As being a Saturday night and we hadnt booked, it was a little crazy but we found a seat at the bar and ordered some drinks and food there.  Great atmosphere, awesome local cider on tap and the guacamole nice and fresh (they literally make it in front of you).  It was fun talking what we thought was english to the barman only for him to misunderstand an order of 2 cokes please.  He thought it was some spirit he had never heard of and asked us to repeat or point on the menu.  Obviously the music was louder than we realised.  We headed back to The Brass Lantern to turn in for our beauty sleep before another big day today.

Sunday...

This mornings breakfast consisted of fresh fruit, waffles with Vermont maple syrup and herb scrambled eggs and maple sausage links.  It was all delicious.  Toot even tried some Maple bacon ice cream on her waffles.  Interesting taste but lovely.   George must think he is feeding an army, he serves large serves and enjoys cooking up a storm.  We also found out that George is one of the local peace keepers.  Just after breakfast there was a marquee going up on the oval for Oktoberfest.  The people putting this up were approached by a bunch of local soccer mums saying it couldn't go up as there was going to be a soccer match.  They were told that the people had a permit for the marquee.  George went to keep the peace.  We checked out of the Brass Lantern and it was time to hit the road again.  We were sad to leave as their hospitality was amazing.  This was both of our first B & B experience and it was lovely.  Would highly recommend this place to anyone.

On the road we first had to make a couple of quick stops.  One to get a few sneaky bottles of the cider we drank last night (only to be questioned by the lady at the checkout about our age, she couldn't believe how old we were, did we mention we love this country) and another quick stop at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill to try a cider doughnut and their local fresh cider (not the hard stuff though). Once on the road again we headed south east so that we could visit Hanover (the home of Dartmouth College).  It was Sunday so unfortunately there were no tours but we had a quick nosy around the town and then jumped back in the car.  Once back on the road we headed to the beginning of the Kancamagus Highway.  The Kancamagus Scenic Byway takes you through a path cut through the White Mountain National Forest with breathtaking views of the White Mountains, the Swift River, Sabbaday Falls, Lower Falls and Rocky Gorge. The Kanc takes you to an elevation of just under 3,000 feet at its highest point at Kancamagus Pass on the flank of Mt. Kancamagus near Lincoln, NH.

Once off this road and pulling into the town we are currently in, we struggled a little to find our hotel  After punching it in correctly to the Gerty the Garmin GPS we arrived at a tree on the side of the White Mountian Highway.  No hotel in sight.  Correct road, no hotel.. We travelled a little further down the road and tried to find street numbers (not as easy as it sounds) and decided after a further 10 mins of driving that we would turn around and try again.  We finally found a hotel with a similar name and went in to ask.  Turns out they have recently changed ownership and therefore changed the name a little and for some reason unknown to us or the not so friendly lady behind the counter, the GPS never picks up the right address for this place.  Oh yay!

Once we finally checked in, we decided to head back into town and do some......you guessed it, outlet shopping!  We dont pay tax for shopping in this state, rock on!  We then headed for a pensioner hour dinner consisting of steak and salad and of course, the baked potato, Americas favourite.  This time dinner was jazzed a little by some stuffed shrimp for Toot and some crab cakes for Gordo.  Dinner finally done and time to head back for an early night.

Time to plan tomorrows adventures and shopping stops.

Til then

Ta ta!

Leaf Peepers

This morning we left Wanda the toothless beast and headed east towards Vermont. We hit the road at about 8:30am and jumped back on the interstate for a short time before taking some of the smaller roads through some villages and small towns and plenty of pretty red and orange leaves.  We stopped in Bennington for breakfast at a local diner.  One of those small town type places where the lady behind the counter knows everyone by name.

From breakfast we headed to take some photos and then back in the car and on the road through some more small towns.  The scenery today has been lovely and wish we could explain it.  Its just something you have to see for yourselves. Toot has spent half the day hanging out of the window of the car taking photos.  She is very excited! We only thought about it today that we should have bought a GoPro and attached it to the car so that we have video while driving of just how lovely the scenery really is.  Who knows, there is always tomorrow.

After a few hours of driving we arrived in Stowe, our sleeping place for the next 2 nights, and had a little rest and decided where to eat dinner. The hosts of the B&B we are staying in are lovely.  They are a married couple whose children have moved away and they now rent the rooms out for people to stay in.  There is a communal lounge and dining area downstairs, with a TV (complimentary microwave popcorn if you want some while watching TV), board games, chess boards,  and also a massive back yard area with some sun lounges so you can sit and ponder while gazing up at Mt Mansfield. Did I also mention that there is afternoon tea consisting of home baked cookies etc and tomorrow there will be a nice home cooked breakfast and some fruit and muffins.

After we had settled in, it was time to head for dinner (at pensioner hour).  We headed to a local Italian restaurant and tried the local beer and cider.  The cider was delicious and Gordo will need to do more experimenting at the boutique micro breweries before she can make an informed decision on the beers.  After dinner we had a small stroll around the town and then headed back to our room for an early night.  We were joking about how tired we were and saying it probably isn't even 8pm, only to look at the time and discover it was only 7:15pm.

It is now 8:30pm and we are both in PJ's, tucked up in bed and discussing what we will get up to tomorrow.  All the while Toots hand is on the light switch asking if its lights out yet? Poor old thing!

So I guess that's it for us for today. Toot is now flicking the lights to say hurry times up.

There will be photos tomorrow as neither of us can be arsed getting up to get the card form the camera to upload them for you.

Sorry Marlene, you will have to wait just a little longer for the Vermont photos.

Stone chips and the land of the maple leaf!

Well we survived our first big driving day.  We managed to get ourselves all the way from Buffalo to Albany, via Canada!  No, seriously.

We started our day by heading back to the falls but before we enjoyed our ventures there, we headed to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. This involved us driving across the bridge, paying the toll and getting a Canadian stamp in our passport before parking the car and stepping out onto Canadian land.  We had a gander and took lots of photos.  This side of the falls is much prettier to look at and the Canadians certainly know how to entertain a crowd.  There are mega hotels, casinos, a small theme park and much more dining options available.  We stayed here for about 1 hr and then headed back to the US!

Once we were back in the US we headed to Cave of the Winds.  This meant donning our ponchos again and still getting saturated.  They give you open shoes that don't slip to badly on the wooden board walk and then you head to the bottom of the falls and walk to the hurricane deck (yep as it sounds water, wind and lots of speed involved).  Again Toot got saturated and was forced to do a car park strip down of her bottom half (this time not including her underwear) before we got back in the car and onto the road. The tour bus of Koreans certainly enjoyed the show.

From here there wasn't really much excitement until we started to see the change of leaf colours along the road (this being the main reason for our driving portion of the trip).  All was going smoothly until a small stone flicked up onto the windscreen and has now put a nice chip in it.  Yep, awesome!  After several failed attempts to call the roadside assistance part of the hire company we gave up and headed on our way to Albany.  This is only a one night stop so that we can break up our driving and get to see some cool stuff tomorrow!  Once we got to the hotel we managed to ring the car company and they said all was good and only notify them again if it gets worse and they will arrange a car swap.  Phew!

Once settled into our travel lodge by the toothless beast named Wanda (not the fish), we headed across the road to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and a piece of cake (which is now sitting on the bed in a takeaway box due to fullness from dinner).  We thought it was rather convenient that one of our good places to eat was located so close to our head resting place.  This was just luck, I promise!

After dinner, back to the room to organise tomorrow driving route through the pretty leaves and covered bridges of Vermont.  This is en route to Stowe, our next stop for 2 nights and a nice B&B with full Vermont breakfast.  Gordo is salivating while typing this.

Until then......goodnight.

PS Toot has informed me that she needs her beauty sleep!!  No amount of sleep will help me!

America survived our driving, and we survived Walmart!

So I know you are all eager to hear if we survived our first day of driving.  The answer is obviously yes!  We flew to Buffalo this morning and picked up the car at the airport.  After a couple of minutes familiarising ourselves with a left handed car we were on the road. After a couple of wrong turns but nothing major we arrived at the hotel and checked in.  After we were settled we headed out to buy some supplies to make our own lunch of a ham and salad sandwich! Amazing!

To get said supplies we had to venture to........Walmart! Yep the birth place of the crazy emails.  We were a little disappointed with the lack of freaks and hicks at this Walmart, but there were the overflowing large bodies shoved into a gopher.  There were also a few mullets but nothing too exciting.  Toot did have the camera phone in her front pocket ready for action, just in case.  Never fear there will be more Walmart trips.  Walmart is massive, it contains a pharmacy, supermarket and a kmart/Big W type area all under the same roof for the same transaction at the end of the day.

After our Walmart trip and amazing lunch, we headed towards Niagara Falls to have a wander and a boat road. We bought tickets to jump on the Maid of the Mist which is a half hour boat ride which takes you up close to the falls.  Close enough to get wet even under a poncho! Good fun though and great views.

From the falls we headed back to the hotel via more factory outlet stores.  Yes you read right, shopping again!  With these prices we would be silly not to.  We now have a car to carry our loot and planned ahead and booked extra seats on the bus from Boston to NY so that we were able to fit our cases on.

After this it was back to the hotel to organise our cases (thanks to Annie for the hot tip on combining cases with stuff not to be used again this trip).  Now we only have to take in one case at our next few stops and we can leave the heavy full one in the boot of the car.

That's about it for todays adventures.  Tomorrow we head back to the falls for some more excitement and then a  stop in Albany for the night before heading to Vermont!  Cant wait!

Walking in Washington

Today saw us walk from the hotel and start our adventures in the Air and Space Museum.  This was kinda cool as there was bits of old space shuttles, space suits, missiles and airplane stuff.  Obviously as you can see the space side was more entertaining. We spent about an hour here before walking back up to the start of the hop on and off bus to take us out to the National Cathedral past Georgetown.

We spent about half an hour out there looking at the stained glass windows and the architecture of the beautiful building.  Unfortunately there is a bit of scaffolding around the place and some netting hanging from the roof inside due to some repair work.. This is necessary due to some damage sustained during the earthquake in 2011.





Once we had finished at the cathedral we boarded the bus again to take us to Georgetown for lunch.  We wandered one of the main streets to find a cafe.  We have grown tired of having to find food for each meal so when we do find a good meal then we get a little excited.  There is however also many days of food envy and some days of disappointment.   Yesterday Gordo was disappointed with lunch and today it was Toots turn. Gordo discovered the deliciousness of a Philly cheesesteak and had vowed to eat one again while on the trip.  Toot very envious and sampled on many occasions. Toot was also disappointed when ordering a lemonade only to find it wasn't up to scratch or even close to the goodness of a Woodies lemonade at home.  It was lemon cordial!

After lunch, guess what? Back on the bus.  We headed back to the end of the route to change to the other line so that we could visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum is dedicated to helping leaders and citizens of the world confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. We spent about 1.5-2 hrs here without even realising it.  There is so much information and so much to see that you could spend all day in this museum alone.

Once we finished up at the museum it was time to head up to Chinatown to find some dinner.  We wandered the street with not much luck and then just as we were about to give up we stumbled across a little hole in the wall restaurant that was full of Asian people.  Usually a good sign in Chinatown.  The food was good and not too expensive.  We were certainly full when we left.  On our way back to the hotel the sun was setting and there was a chance for a couple of photos.

You may be able to see in the photo below the scaffolding around the Washington Monument.  This is due to repair work going on.  The monument was another casualty of the earthquake.  It is due to re-open in 2015.

We started to head back to the hotel to repack when on the way we made a decision that we would get an ice cream.  The only thing around that was still open that sold ice cream was macca's a couple of doors down form the hotel.  We walked in, placed our order and was then informed that the ice cream machine was broken.  Poor Toot almost cried.  The bottom lip was out and I am sure that there were almost tears in the eyes.  It was obviously a sign that we didn't actually need it.

So here we are, all packed and getting ready for bed.

Until tomorrow......Niagara, here we come!

Don't fear....we're still alive!

Hola!

So we know it's been a while but we've been a bit busy so sorry about that.  To sum it up we've been shopping, had a sneaky flutter, had some boo-fay (buffet), been on a chopper ride, been motion sick, been to a show and been on a boring flight to D.C.

So now that you've all caught up...we'll see you later.



NAH Just kidding....let's start at the very beginning....Las Vegas Friday 20 September 2013.

We went shopping again but this time we got acquainted with the Las Vegas South Premium Outlets - not nearly as good as the north ones but these are located in doors which is a plus in the desert heat.  Once we finished bargain hunting we headed back to the hotel.  Once there we had to try a Las Vegas Boo-fay (buffet) and we went to see Cirque du Soleil - "KA" at our hotel.  It was amazing to say the least - incredibly talented people that put on an amazing performance.  Toot wishes she saw all shows whilst in Vegas but that then would have meant less shopping time - so clearly that wasn't going to happen.

As mentioned before, our hotel the MGM Grand is so huge that we have to allow at least 10-15mins to get between our room and the lobby to be down in time for shows, dinner or tours etc.  Also they held the "I Heart Radio" music festival on the Friday and Saturday night at our hotel and some of the performers were Sir Paul McCartney, Elton John, Queen, Keith Urban, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars etc.  All of these we're so close but do you think we got to see any of these people...NO!  Oh well... but because of this it was super crazy in the hotel.  Did we mention how unpleasant it is to walk through each hotel, as you have to walk through all of their casinos to get anywhere but in doing this everyone is allowed to smoke so we both almost died every time we went through anywhere.  (P.S. Sue tell Emma we even had a Macca's in our hotel).

On Saturday we had a bit of a sleep in (awesome hotel room with a great block out blind - ahhh BLISS).  Well except hearing the next door neighbours getting jiggy with it and being very loud (ewwwww...............I know this is Vegas and all but please....).  

So after our sleep in we tried to pack all our new purchases...eeek that was a task and a half.  But we got there with not many casualties or tears.  Once this was "done" we went and ate some lunch before we were collected for our Sunset Grand Canyon Helicopter ride.  We were picked up in a limo to be driven 2 blocks (yes we know we could have walked but hey it was all part of the tour cost so we lapped it up).  We joined the rest of the group, we were weighed in and assigned our seats.  We were lucky enough to get front seats in the helicopter.  We then went and met the pilot, had a few pics and then we were off...... of course we took off to songs from "Good Morning Vietnam" to put us in the chopper mood.  Not long after take off Gordo has requested a sick bag! Oh no!  It was a bit turbulent and apparently this doesn't agree with Gordo.  So the poor possum spent the entire ride to the Grand Canyon and back with her head in the sick bag (however on the way back it was just in the bag as a precaution).  However Toot had a fab time in between handing over extra sick bags, wet ones, tissues and gum she took lots of photos as well as seeing the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and of course the Grand Canyon.  Gordo saw all of these from behind the bag. We landed at the bottom by the river and had a small picnic (all but Gordo who enjoyed a lie down and a cold compress).  On another helicopter we had a couple that flew in with their photographer and wedding celebrant and got married at the bottom  as well.  Was very beautiful and thought it was a much classier way to get married especially in Vegas (than in a wedding chapel).  We actually saw on the strip a pop up wedding chapel and people were actually in it about the get married - really?!!

 











 
After the helicopter ride we arrived back in the hotel where Gordo  needed a lie down for a while and a rest before she was ready to eat again since she was now empty.

The next morning we were on our way to Washington D.C. - this day wasn't all that exciting until we finally arrived into the hotel at 10:30pm to be told our reservation had been cancelled.  Yup what a joke!  We hadn't eaten, we were tired, everything around us was closed and we were now apparently homeless. Yay.  They gave us a room in the end...thankfully and said they would sort it out in the morning.  Well we haven't been notified any differently or been kicked out so all good for the moment.


 












Today we walked to Pennsylvania Avenue and booked onto an Old Trolley Hop on Hop Off tours around the city to all the main sites (since we thought this might be a good idea since we only have 2 full days here).  On first thoughts of this city we both really like it as it's a walkable city and it's so clean.  Well the bits the tourists see anyway. 

We visited the White House, Arlington Cemetery (and saw the Kennedy's grave sites- John & Jackie and 2 of their kids that died young), Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, World War 2 Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and we also toured around Georgetown (but plan to walk around more in this area tomorrow), we also went past the Union Station, FBI building, National Archives, Supreme Court and the Air & Space Museum.

This evening we arrived back to the hotel and did some mandatory laundry as we are both out of clean, dry underwear and socks.  We then went and grabbed some dinner and about to go to sleep so we are refreshed and ready to go for another full on day in the D.C.

Until tomorrow... we promise!

City Rankings....

1. San Francisco
2. Washington D.C.
3. Anaheim
4. Las Vegas
5. Los Angeles

Oops, we slipped into the outlet shopping mall

So we accidentally found out how to catch the local bus to the outlet shopping mall.  Whoops, we made many a purchase! Whoops, we are going to the other outlet mall tomorrow!

After both holding out on purchases earlier in the trip, we have not yet been disappointed by Vegas shopping! There are many items now piled on the spare chair on our hotel room.  These include tops, bottoms, bags, purses etc.  It was a successful day!

So there really aren't many interesting stories for you today! Except that we spent all day shopping, then returned to the hotel to freshen up, and change into new purchases.  Once this happened we went out to find dinner and treated ourselves to a nice steak (glad we shared again) and then headed to the front of the Bellagio to watch the water show. A few years ago we saw the water show at the bottom of the Burj Kalifa and were told at the time that it was based on the original show at the Bellagio.  After now seeing the two, we can safely say that the show at the Burj Kalifa is better.  Having said that both are pretty specky but the Wonderful World of Colour (from California Park) is way better and far more impressive. Once the water show had finished we caught the monorail back to our hotel to turn in for the evening to reboot our energy for another massive day of shopping tomorrow followed by a Cirque de Soleil show.

City ratings so far......
1. San Francisco
2. Anaheim
3. Las Vegas
4. Los Angeles

All Disneyd Out and off to Sin City

Sorry that you folks didn't get a blog yesterday! With all the excitement of California Park and an amazing light show to end the day and then getting back to the hotel to pack, we were way too pooped to even consider writing!

Yesterday we spent the day at Disneys California Park.  This is a more grown up version of Disneyland.  Still Disney, but aimed at the older kids ie massive roller coaster (that we could only watch and couldn't consider riding ourselves) and more adult related rides and food available. However there is still plenty to do for the little kids. Our first ride of the day was Grizzly's River Run.  This was a ride that you are going to get wet on.  There are 8 people in a seated round "raft" with a rubber tube on the bottom so that it spins and bumps its way through a "river"up hills and down waterfall type things.  Lots of fun, if you don't mind getting wet.  This was all good until our 3rd run of the day when poor Toot got majorly splashed and spent some of the afternoon baking in the sun trying to dry out.  Her shorts as well as her undies were soaked through.  This led to having to search California Park for some adult underwear of course with Minnie Mouse on them!

After drying Toot out a little we headed for Cars Land where we rode the super fun Radiator Springs Racers.  This is 6 people placed in an automated car and driven around Radiator Springs (from the cars movie).  Once you get to a certain point on the track you are placed along side another car and race til the end.  Lots of fun, many dips and a 50 minute wait to do it again! After all the excitement of rides we watched the Pixar Parade and then headed over to Disneyland to do the Buzz ride again (yes we are big kids) and ride the tea cups for one last time.  Then back to California Park for the final light show for the evening, a World of Colour.  I am sorry but there is no way to describe this.  It is amazing.  There are lights, water, music, fire and projectors, all working together to perform a show that include snippets from Disney movies past and present. If there is one thing I wish I could do over again from the last 3 days, this would be it. It was AMAZING!!!!!!! That brought our Disney experience to an end, and what an end.  After that it was back to the hotel to pack again and squeeze in a couple of hours of sleep before rising this morning to head to Vegas!

We boarded the bus to take us to Las Vegas.  We drove via Barstow and the Mojave Desert.  The trip was about 4.5 hours in total and was quite pleasant.  The "trolly dolly" for the bus was quite good at keeping everyones complimentary drinks topped up, along with snacks and good information about transport when arriving in Vegas.  Once we arrived in Vegas we caught the monorail from the bus stop to our hotel as its quite warm outside and this place is huge. We were exhausted just walking from the lobby of our hotel up to our room. Its a maze and there is NO WAY we will remember where we are going without the aid of the hotel map and signs over head.

After settling in we went to explore The Strip. We headed north up The Strip past the Palazzo and then turned around and headed back.. We got to a monorail stop and caught that the rest of the way.  We have a 4 day monorail pass for Vegas which will certainly help getting around due to the temperatures and size of this place. We returned to the hotel to freshen up and then head out to find some dinner.

You have to walk through the casinos to get to your hotel room, there is plenty of people smoking, there is lots of drinking in the streets and it is perfectly normal to buy a jumbo margarita in a giant sippy cup and walk the strip with this.

We have seen many a wedding party, Mr T, Elvis, zombie, Elvis, Superman,  Elvis and many more.

Until tomorrow......

The happiest place on earth

This morning we started our day by going out for another run.  Then off to breakfast and to shower before heading to Disneyland!

Once we exchanged our voucher for tickets at the booth and entered, wow, what an overwhelming feeling! We were finally here and surrounded by millions of little people, some happy, some not so much!

They are currently in the process of decorating Disneyland for Halloween so there is pumpkins etc everywhere.  It was pretty cool. Our first proper Halloween experience.

Once we got in and got a map and got an idea of where everything was we headed to Fantasyland through Sleeping Beauty's Castle (seems a lot smaller than what we expected it to be).  We found the Tea Cup ride straight away and got in line.  Was lots of fun on the iconic ride (also both at our kinda ride pace too).  We then found the Dumbo ride and had fun on that one.  Yup we were the big kids in between all the parents and little people.  

After Dumbo we headed to Toontown and jumped in Lenny the taxi (Roger Rabbit ride) swirling and smiling til our cheeks hurt.  Again another fun paced ride for us old chicks.  We grabbed some pizza for lunch (again shared a slice between us).  We walked around Toontown and happened to run into Mickey - yay so we had a few photos with him and headed towards Splash Mountain and on the way ran into Pluto (and of course had to have a picture with him).


 
We waited in line for Splash Mountain and were happy to reach the front on the line (Disneyland should take lessons from Universal i.e. their Front of the Line passes and even their sipper cup refills - I'll get off my soap box now).  I think our stomachs are still at the park (after losing them on the ride).  Having said that, the little girl in the front of our canoe was much braver than both of us put together.

 We also enjoyed a few more rides on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (this was Toot's favourite ride of the day) - you got to sit in a spaceship like pod and shoot at targets while going through a course and you can also spin the pod around to whichever way you liked.  It also added your scores up (2 ppl in a pod).  FYI Toot won.  Gordo not happy and still at park wanting a re-do.  We also went on the Finding Nemo submarine ride as well as a go kart type ride.  

After all the rides we had some dinner and did some shopping.  Toot found where all the little Princess' were getting their hair done but she was too big.  She was not happy - she wanted to look like a Princess too.  How rude!  Gordo was trying to find a Buzz Lightyear outfit in her size with no such luck.





 
 
We stayed to watch the parade which was fun and then caught the Disneyland monorail from Tomorrow land out to Downtown Disney.  Downtown Disney is a large area of shops and restaurants and joins the park to many of the close by hotels. This also bought us out at the side of the park not far from our hotel.  It also luckily had a huge Lego store (the stuff Gordos dreams are built from). She was like a kid in a candy store and was trying to figure out how to buy all of it and get it home in her bag. No such luck, ah nuts!

After the Lego shop it was time to head back to our hotel and crash for the evening, as we have another full day tomorrow.  It is tough being a kid for a day.  Toot is just glad that she doesn't have kid sized legs, however has requested a stroller for tomorrow.

Hi Ho, hi ho, it's off to Anaheim we go..........

This morning was an early one.  Surprisingly Toot was rather chipper, got up, got dressed (ahead of schedule and without complaint). Gordo on the other hand was a little slow and quiet.

We were picked up by the bus for Anaheim at 7am outside our hotel.  From there it was a little shuttle to collect a few others and then it was time to hit the road.  Traffic was good being early Sunday morning however the further south we got, the crappier the weather was.  Story of this trip.  It was all good, just some fog (not smog) which had well and truly cleared by lunch time.  Once we arrived at the hotel we were able to check straight in and then go and get breakfast.

After breakfast we did some washing which thanks to the lovely weather we have been having is now dry and then it was time to go for a walk.  We headed to the Anaheim Garden Walk (local shopping mall) and did some browsing and Toot made a couple of purchases.  She now has new shoes and a nice new pair of sunnies.  Those who remember the story of the 2nd and last breakage of her last pair will know how happy this will make her. No sitting on these ones please Toot!

Also between making said purchases and eating lunch we almost witnessed a real life episode of "Cops" - we saw one cop car screaming down Katella Ave towards the Garden Walk and pulls up out front with 5 other cop cars as well as the dog squad and even an ambulance.  When we got a little closer (being nosy of course) there was a half dressed dude with not shirt on being retrained by 2 cops.  Not sure what happened or what went down but all this for one guy - really? Oh well was a bit of excitement for the day anyway. 

After purchases were finalised it was time for lunch.  We looked around and eventually decided it was time to try the Cheesecake Factory (Big Bang fans, Penny didn't work at this one). We shared an appetizer and a salad and piece of very delicious white choc and raspberry truffle cheesecake and came away well satisfied. Had to have cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory.  But please notice we shared all of the above items.

After lunch we went for a short stroll to find the entrance for our adventure to Disneyland tomorrow so we could be prepared.  After this we went back to the hotel via 7Eleven getting a slushy (to cool us down), some drinks and some more washing detergent. Once back at the hotel we rested for a bit and did some reading then decided to go for a run (its been a while since strenuous exercise took place) and returned to the hotel to get showered/changed to head for dinner.

Dinner was just at the local diner and we shared spaghetti and meatballs with a salad and a piece of brownie.  Delicious once again but very full and couldn't eat it all.  After dinner we went for another walk to see if we could find the other entrance to the park.  We walked down Disneyland Drive which has palm trees on both sides of the street with fairy lights wrapped around the trunks.  It is very pretty.

We would like to add at this point that in the last 4 days, we have been carded 3 times! This made Toots day today as she is an old fart at the age of 30!  She almost reached over to the spanish lady behind the counter and kissed her on the forehead. 

We have just had to leave you momentarily so we could watch the fireworks from Disneyland from our balcony. Its a rough life!

So another day draws to an end and tomorrow we get to hang with Mickey and friends. Very excited!

Sorry we have no photos for you today.......but i'm sure we will overload you with them tomorrow to make up for it.

Until then.....

Tour of Tinsel Town

This morning we joined a tour of the city since it is very difficult to walk around and the public transport leaves a lot to be desired.

We were picked up from our hotel and joined our tour group so we could get started.  We were on a mini bus with about 24 others.  The sights we visited today were Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Rodeo Drive, various homes ( such as Madonna, Orlando Bloom, the house in which Michael Jackson died and many more), a growers market and some other sights along the way including a trip up Mullholland Drive to stop to take a photo of the Hollywood sign.  Unfortunately it has been a celebrity sighting free trip to Hollywood for us.

Our first stop was Venice Beach.  We stopped here for almost an hour which allowed us to get some lunch, go for a walk past the courts where the movie White Men Can't Jump had scenes filmed and Muscle Beach where people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger used to pump iron back in the day. Venice Beach is full of weirdos, dirty, lots of hippies, dope smoking people and people "Dr's" willing to hand out health cards for the legal use of marijuana, for a fee of course. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting and wouldn't be fussed if we never visited there again.

Next we drove through Santa Monica past the pier (which unfortunately we weren't stopping at, but that can be for next trip).  Santa Monica is a much nicer stretch of beach than Venice and also has a fairly nice shopping area a few streets back form the beach.  Once we had driven through Santa Monica it was time to head back to the Los Angeles. 

Once we were back in LA, we stopped at a growers market for a short look around, as the area that we were supposed to visit was closed for the day due to Mexican Independence Day celebrations.  We were supposed to be visiting El Pueblo de Los Angeles (where LA was first settled, 11 families, 44 people) back in 1781.

Next stop Mulholland Drive for photos of the Hollywood sign and a few celebrity houses. After Mullholland Drive it was off to Beverly Hills.  The houses there are massive.  Some of the cheaper homes in Beverly Hills go for as little as six to eight million.  These are located in what is referred to as the flat section. After checking out homes we headed to Rodeo Drive.

We saw the shop that was used in Pretty Woman and the hotel that Richard Gere stayed at in the movie.  Also along Rodeo Drive was a car called a Bugatti.  These retail for about $2m.  It is driven by one of the owners of one of the shops (the most expensive shop on the street, House of Bijan). We took some photos and the only shopping done was that of the window variety.  Even with sales you would be lucky to find anything under $1000.  Unless you buy something from the ice cream van.

From here we headed back to the hotel to pack our bags for an early start and a short bus ride to Anaheim so we can play at Disneyland.

That's it from the City of Angels and City of Broken Dreams......

City Rankings...so far:

1. San Francisco
2. Los Angeles

Stay tuned for more rankings.

Ehh....What's up Doc?

Today saw us jump in a cab and head on out to Warner Bros Studios!  We took part in a VIP studio tour which showed us around the back lot and sound stages of Warner Bros Studios.  We went on a live set of "The Mentalist" as they were out in Sacramento shooting for the day.  The set was all ready for shooting an episode.  It was interesting to see how a set works.  We also visited the props department where they store all types of props and they can be rented by anyone for a price.  Quite often different studios will rent each others props, which saves each studio owning the same things.

After the props department we visited the transport museum which housed vehicles such as Bat Mobiles from all movies, The Grand Torino (Clint Eastwood actually purchased this after the filming of the movie but houses it at Warner Bros as he has about 1000 cars). There was also the flying car used in the Harry Potter movies as well as Austin Powers Shaguar and The Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo.

Also as part of the tour we visited the museum celebrating 90 years of costumes at Warner Bros.  These ranged from Batman, Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, Big Bang etc and also had costumes from movies such as My Fair Lady and Casablanca.  This was a two story museum with the entire top floor dedicated to memorabilia from the Harry Potter movies.  Items included costumes worn by many of the characters, the sorting hat, the giant feet worn by the stunt man playing the troll in the bathroom in the first movie and also things such as one of the giant spiders and the body used for Hermione when she is frozen from looking into the mirror. Another exciting part of our Warner Bros tour was walking into the "Central Perk" set from Friends.  Warner Bros has preserved this set as  tribute to the ever popular sitcom.  We were even able to have our photo taken on the couch in Central Perk.

Once we finished our tour at Warner Bros we caught a cab back to Rodeo Drive via Mullholland Drive, past all the fancy houses with gardeners tending to the yards.  We walked down Rodeo Drive, onto Willshire Boulevard and up Robertson Drive (where the celebs shop), went past "The Ivy" and forgot to make a reservation, oh no! We then had lunch at the Beverley Centre and then caught a cab back to Highland Hollywood Centre to walk back to the hotel.  We rested for a bit and then headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  We over ordered which now means we have lunch and maybe even dinner sorted for tomorrow.  Thank god for doggy bags and hotel fridges!

The Hollywood Bowl is situated just up the road from our hotel and its prime season for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.  There are shows on all nights this week at least which means that traffic on the street outside in nuts.  There are signs out everywhere for people to park their cars and crazy men with flashing lights trying to sell their parking spots.  They obviously do this all the time as the signs made up are high quality and they seem to be fairly organised.

I guess that's is for today! Stay tuned for tomorrow as we will be hopping on a bus and heading to Venice Beach and the like.